JERUSALEM — The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) suspect that six journalists of the news organization Al Jazeera are members of two terrorist organizations, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The IDF said it found the documents in Gaza.
On Thursday, the IDF released a document detailing the names, positions and numbers of the soldiers that they are not terrorists. Al Jazeera journalist Anas Jamal Mahmoud Al-Sharif, according to the IDF, is part of Hamas’ Northern Brigade and has served as a “true group commander” and a “third-class soldier.”
The IDF information contains financial information about the suspected terrorist and says Al-Sharif was a “fighter and cell leader in the rocket company,” and a “fighter” in Hamas’ Nukhba special agency.
A statement released by Al Jazeera Media Network on Wednesday called the allegations “baseless,” saying it “views these false allegations as a clear attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby hiding the painful realities of the war from viewers around the world.”
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Photographs of suspected Hamas terrorists wearing protective vests labeled as reporting machine in conflict zones were revealed in the IDF dossier. Al Jazeera is headquartered in Qatar.
Following the massacre by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis and other foreigners were killed, and 241 hostages were taken by Hamas terrorists, Israel attacked Gaza to return the hostages and destroy Hamas.
A man walks past shelter tents set up next to collapsed buildings in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on Oct. 1, 2024. (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
The head of the Jerusalem Bureau of the now closed Al Jazeera office, Walid Omary, categorically denied the IDF’s allegations against Al Jazeera journalists on Fox News Digital.
“These are baseless allegations from the Israeli army. Although Al Jazeera confirms that the journalists listed below are employed by this network, we reject these allegations and the portrayal of our journalists as terrorists. They are simply doing their professional work, documenting, and reporting on the horrific realities of war and its impact of 2 million people The current allegations follow Al Jazeera’s revelations about war crimes that may have been committed by Israeli forces during the Gaza war.
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Al Jazeera Bureau Chief Walid Omari speaks during a press conference on the targeting of Palestinian journalists, in London on May 27, 2022. (Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Omary added, “In the past two years, they have targeted and killed several Al Jazeera journalists in the West Bank and Gaza. These include Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist in 2022, and Samer Abu Daqqa, Hamza Al. Dahdouh, and Ismail Al Ghoul in the past year, some of them accused due to baseless allegations or false evidence brought these cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague seeking justice for its employees.
“Furthermore, the Israeli forces targeted and killed 100 journalists and media workers last year as documented by world-renowned press freedom organizations. The Israeli forces continue to show open hostility to Al Jazeera because of the network’s commitment to spreading the truth that is being revealed in Gaza. and elsewhere.”
Other journalists on the IDF directory include Ismail Farid Muhammad Abu Omar, who allegedly worked for Hamas in the Khan Yunis Brigade since 2021. “Exercise Commander,” the IDF said. He enlisted in Hamas in 2005, noted the IDF.
Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau on July 29, 2017. (Mahmoud Ibrahim/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Other Hamas members, according to the IDF, are Hossam Basel Abdul Karim Shabat, who is part of the Beit Hanoun Battalion and “a gunner in an anti-tank company,” and Talal Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Aruki, who allegedly enlisted in Hamas. in 2008, according to the IDF.
Aruki released a statement on Instagram refuting the IDF’s allegations, saying he was studying at the university when the IDF accused him of joining Hamas. He said, “A campaign of incitement by me and a group of Al Jazeera journalists is being carried out by the Israeli army. This news is nothing but an alleged incitement by the Israeli army.”
The IDF also accused two other journalists of being part of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Alaa Abdul Aziz Muhammad Salama, who they say is the “deputy commander of combat propaganda,” and Ashraf Sami Ashour Saraj, a child soldier.
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The United States government has designated both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as foreign terrorist organizations.
The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement on X saying, “The Committee to Protect Journalists is aware of the allegations made by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against several journalists in Gaza who are suspected of being members of militant groups. These are baseless claims without providing concrete evidence.”
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